The Federal Communications Commission has opened a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on "whether the FCC should take measures to reduce the number of migratory bird collisions with communications towers." This is the second comment cycle the agency has launched on the matter over the past three years—the first a Notice of Inquiry that the Commission authorized in 2003.

Meanwhile as many as 15 million migrating birds may have perished in collisions with U.S. wireless towers during this period. U.S. Department of Interior Fish and Wildlife Service documents cite statistics estimating that communications towers kill between four and five million birds a year, and that the number and size of these towers are growing at an "exponential" rate.

The FCC's new Notice asks the public to comment on:

• Whether "the available scientific evidence is sufficient to demonstrate that communications towers are having a significant impact on migratory birds."
• To what extent, if at all, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) gives the FCC authority to act on the matter, assuming the agency concludes that the problem exists.
• Whether certain technologies, such as medium intensity white strobe lights, could mitigate bird collisions, presumably by scaring birds away from the towers.
• If the FCC should require telcos that apply for tower applications to prepare an environmental assessment "if a proposed tower or antenna facility may affect migratory birds."

The Commission launched the notice at its Friday November 3rd Open Meeting. FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell urged the agency to tackle the issue "while not unduly hampering the ability of industry to deliver new, advanced services to American consumers as quickly and economically as possible."

Commissioner Michael Copps chided the FCC for its delay in acting on the dilemma.

"Put bluntly, for too many years this agency treated a widely-recognized problem with not-so-benign neglect," Copps stated. "Now we have learned, I hope, that this is not a problem that will just go away if we ignore it."

The FCC first invited public comment on this issue in response to a petition brought before the agency by the Forest Preservation Council, the American Bird Conservancy, and the Friends of the Earth in 2002. The three groups asked for a moratorium on new transmitter tower construction until the completion of an environmental review.

In response the agency issued a Notice of Inquiry on the matter, which the petitioners described as inadequate to what they called an emergency situation.

"There are no time limits for the completion of the NOI and no proposed actions to benefit birds and prevent the annual killing of millions of birds," their response to the NOI, filed in November of 2003, charged. "The NOI could proceed indefinitely, thus providing another convenient excuse to continue the FCC's years of delays in addressing the killing of millions of migratory birds at towers."

More stories:

• October 28, 2006, Fate of birds to be decided by FCC